Key task
Perk up your patio with a winter container. Winter heathers provide flowers for a long time and are good partners for hellebores and miniature iris.
This month’s round up…
While you’ll be busy in the garden pruning late-flowering clematis and roses, as well as sowing the first veg seeds, take the time to look for blackbirds and long-tailed tits searching for nesting materials – a sign spring is on its way.
Prune
■ Buddleias – cut back hard
■ Hardy fuchsias
■ Late-flowering clematis
■ Old, overgrown shrubs
■ Roses – bush, shrub and climbers
Plant
■ Jerusalem artichokes
■ Lily of the valley
■ Potted bulbs in flower
■ Rhubarb
■ Shallots
■ Summer-flowering bulbs
Sow
Indoors
■ Chillies
■ Leeks
■ Sweet peas
■ Tomatoes
Outdoors
■ Broad beans
■ Carrots
■ Hardy peas
Harvest
■ Brussels sprouts
■ Cabbages
■ Forced rhubarb
■ Kale
■ Parsnips
■ Purple sprouting broccoli
■ Swiss chard
This months Star plants
1 Camellia x williamsii ‘Donation’
Plant this camellia in partial shade and acidic soil to ensure a long season of colour from the semi-double pink flowers. It’s a tough, reliable shrub.
Flowers Feb-May
Height x Spread 5m x 2.5m
2 Crocus
Crocuses are the perfect flower to lift your spirits on a cold February morning. Plant them generously under trees and shrubs or naturalise
